In an exclusive interview with Telecom Review, Mohammed Alhakbani, CEO, TAWAL, sheds light on his company’s efforts in contributing to Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation journey during LEAP2022 technology innovation conference in Riyadh.
How does TAWAL plan to reach newer heights as a leading regional ICT infrastructure provider in 2022?
TAWAL is the leading ICT infrastructure service provider in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well as in the MENA region with more than 15000 towers distributed across the kingdom. We pride ourselves as an important element in the success of the digital economy and digital evolution in the kingdom. We try to enable our customers through various innovative infrastructure services as well as promoting co-location and making their operations more efficient. All of this is done through very innovative operation maintenance capabilities around the clock.
How important is boosting infrastructure-sharing in the Industry 4.0 era?
As I mentioned earlier, the infrastructure is an important element today. To have a very successful digital economy, you need a very robust and stable infrastructure and this is where TAWAL plays a big role. With industry 4.0, there is a lot of investment that is required on the operators when it comes to providing new services and applications. Majority of the capital expenditure is going towards those services. TAWAL plays a role in helping the operators in enabling them by taking that burden when it comes to infrastructure and turning their CAPEX investment into a more operational and effective way.
As a key player in the Saudi telecom infrastructure industry, how does TAWAL aspire to extend its coverage?
We offer the basic services for any tower companies – such as built-to-suit, colocation, or operation maintenance. We are also embarking into in-building solutions, enhancing coverage within shopping malls and commercial buildings. A new service that we are trying to enable and help in the smart cities is what we call the smart tower or smart poles where we act as a marketplace for various services and solutions where we bear and manage the infrastructure and the solutions providers could simply hosted on that infrastructure.
What is the significance of TAWAL’s participation in LEAP 2022?
Saudi Arabia is a leading country when it comes to digital innovation as well as from an economic perspective. The LEAP event is a showcase of that capability where both international and national companies could come together to engage and discuss on how to go to the next level when it comes to innovation and digital infrastructure. I think it is a great opportunity and we are very pleased we have participated and look forward to that in subsequent years.
